The Belt and Road Podcast

Cotton Diplomacy in Central Asia: Dr. Irna Hofman on China in Tajikistan and Beyond

March 10, 2022 Erik Myxter-iino and Juliet Lu Episode 52
The Belt and Road Podcast
Cotton Diplomacy in Central Asia: Dr. Irna Hofman on China in Tajikistan and Beyond
Show Notes

Just across the Xinjiang border, China is investing in a range of sectors. Infrastructure and road construction are booming as in many other places, but cotton investments dominate and are seen as a distinct type. Cotton is considered a strategic crop both to China and Tajikistan and is embedded in a range of elite networks and state power. Cotton Diplomacy is one of many things we cover in this episode, listen in!

Read more of Dr. Hofman's work: 

  1. Chinese Cotton Diplomacy in Tajikistan: Greasing the Ties by Reviving the Cotton Economy
  2. In the Interstices of Patriarchal Order: Spaces of Female Agency in Chinese-Tajik Labour Encounters
  3. Towards a geography of window dressing and benign neglect: The state, donors and elites in Tajikistan's trajectories of post-Soviet agrarian change


Recommendations
Irna

Erik

  • Embrace home design DIY!
  • Listen to MeatLoaf Bat Outta Hell 2 album especially

Juliet